Scott's prefered MLB format
'''Scott's Preferred MLB format '''is a list of changes Scott would like to see made to the MLB Expansion *Expand MLB from 30 teams up to 32 by adding teams to Charlotte and Las Vegas. Other possible expansion targets include Montreal, Nashville, Portland, and San Antonio. Realignment *The AL and NL would now each feature 16 teams, with one expansion team being added into each league. *Realign both leagues into two 8-team divisions **AL East: Current AL East plus Chicago White Sox, Cleveland, and Detroit **AL West: Current AL West plus Kansas City, Minnesota, and Las Vegas expansion team **NL East: Current NL East plus Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Charlotte expansion team **NL West: Current NL West plus Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee, and St. Louis Regular Season *The Regular Season would be shortened to 154 games played over 176 days. *The Regular Season would start the first Monday in April (with one or two "spotlight" games played the Sunday before) and end the fourth Sunday in September. *Teams play 14-15 games against divisional opponents, for a total of 102 games. *Teams play 6-7 games against same league, cross-division opponents for a total of 50 games *Interleague play is reduced to 2 games per season. One home and one away against a designated "interleague rival." These games will be played Memorial Day and Labor Day and the DH will be used in all interleague games (although the pitcher will still bat in World Series games at the NL park). Recognized interleague rivalries are NY Yankees-NY Mets, Baltimore-Washington, Tampa Bay-Miami, Cleveland-Cincinnati, Chicago White Sox-Chicago Cubs, Minnesota-Milwaukee, Kansas City-St. Louis, LA Angels-LA Dodgers, Oakland-San Francisco, and Las Vegas expansion-Arizona. The remaining teams (Boston, Detroit, Houston, Seattle, Texas, and Toronto from the AL; Atlanta, Colorado, Charlotte expansion, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Diego from the NL) will play interleague games from other teams without a "designated rival." *The All-Star Break will be four days for all teams. Most teams will have Monday through Thursday off, but two games will be played the Thursday after the All-Star Break. Those four teams will instead be off Sunday through Wednesday. (for example, New York Yankees vs Oakland and Los Angeles Angels vs. Minnesota are played the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before the All-Star Break. Those teams get Sunday through Wednesday off, then ESPN airs a doubleheader the following Thursday; Minnesota vs New York Yankees and Oakland vs Los Angeles Angels). Playoffs *Playoffs expand from 10 teams to 12 teams, with the top 3 teams from each division qualifying for the postseason. *The second and third place teams from each division play in a two-game Wild Card playoff. The second place team must win one games, while the third place team must win two games. This is currently done in the Korean Baseball Leagues. Game 1 will be hosted by the third place team Tuesday, and Game 2 will be hosted by the second place team Wednesday. No travel day is needed because the match-ups feature divisional foes. *The Division Series starts the following Friday and is expanded to best-of-7. The division champion will play the wild card playoff winner from the other division in its league (e.g. the AL West winner plays the AL East wild card and vice versa). The division champion gets "super home field advantage" and will host 5 games (Games 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7), while the wild card team only gets 2 home games (Games 4 and 5). *The two division series winners in each league square off in the LCS which is the more traditional 2-3-2 best-of-7 format. Home field advantage goes to the team with the better record. *The two league champions duke it out in the World Series, which is 2-3-2 best-of-7 format. Home field advantage goes to the team with the better record. *Days/Dates for various playoff rounds: **WC games: Tues-WED **LDS (TBS league): FRI-SAT-SUN-Tues-Wed-FRI-SAT **LDS (Fox/FS1 league): FRI-SAT-MON-Wed-Thur-SAT-SUN **LCS (TBS league): MON-TUES-Thur-Fri-Sat-MON-TUES **LCS (Fox/FS1 league): TUES-WED-Fri-Sat-Sun-TUES-WED **WS: FRI-SAT-Mon-Tues-Wed-FRI-SAT. **The latest possible Game 7 date (barring weather postponements) is November 1.